 Sales
Moves Best Practices
Salespeople Have Questions!
Jeffrey Has Answers
By Jeffrey Gitomer
I get a ton of emails asking to solve sales dilemmas.
Here are a few that may relate to your job, your life,
but most important, your sales thought process:
I recently started in sales with a small company that
doesn't have a training department. I've been reading as
much as I can, but am looking for something specifically
on selling sponsorship. Do you have any advice on
sponsorship sales or know of a good resource? Jennifer
Sponsorship is a form of marketing, branding, and
advertising. There is no quick answer in a book. But
there are quick answers in other sponsors. Look at the
companies in your area that are currently sponsoring
things other than what you sell. Charitable events. Golf
tournaments. Sporting teams. Business events. Talk to
the people who purchase these sponsorships and find out
why they bought them, what their experience has been,
and whether they would buy them again. This will not
only give you answers to help you sell your new venture
— but it will also put you in front of prospective
sponsors.
I am in phone sales and believe I do a fair job.
However, I'm curious about ways to establish a sense of
urgency in the people I talk with. Often times they
agree to needing our services, but put off the
registration, etc. Help please! Brad
Everyone wants what you sell. The question is do they
feel the need combined with the urgency. In order for
you to create greater urgency, you have to find out how
they intend to use the phone, not simply tell them what
kind of phones you have and then ask them to buy. Once
you find out what their five prime uses are, then you
can begin to create urgency around each one. And once
your customer sees the real need based on his or her own
intended use, they will create their own urgency and buy
from you.
My question involves the idea of leaving business cards
"out in the open" as a form of generating leads. There
are two schools of thought: 1) Leave them out on tables
at conferences, at the bar in restaurants, at sports
events, wherever there's people. It's practically free
and if even one sale is made as a result, it far
outweighs the cost of printing cards. What have you got
to lose? 2) It's a waste of trees, ink and money and can
possibly reduce the image of your company's brand. Put
them directly into the open hand of a prospect, and only
after you've expressed your business's value
proposition. Which school of thought do you belong to,
Jeffrey? Paul
I think leaving business cards lying around is totally
tacky, and a poor way to build image. Have you ever come
out of a ball game and seen a flyer on your windshield
or a business card tucked into your window? What did you
think? How fast did you throw it away? Business cards
are a secondary marketing source. They’re to be given
away AFTER an introduction has taken place, not before.
Instead of leaving things lying around, why not make a
firm marketing plan so you can actually meet people,
engage people, interest people in what you’re doing, and
then professionally exchange business cards.
When selling a product for the first time in a city
where no one knows the name of your company, what would
be the first step to introduce people to the new
product, especially if they already are using a
different company? David
When Debbie Fields opened up a new cookie store in any
city, the first thing she did was give away cookies.
People liked them, began to talk about them (and the
experience), and ultimately returned to buy more
cookies. She was not the only cookie store in town. She
was not the only bakery in town. But she ended up being
the most successful in town. There are two things you
need to do: 1) Bring testimonials from existing
customers in video format to your new city. Testimonials
are proof that your product is great, that your service
is great, and that you deliver what you promise. 2) Find
one or two great prospective customers and give your
product away in exchange for local testimonials. Most
companies make the foolish mistake of trying to make
sales before they make friends or build relationships.
Once you have developed a few loyal customers, begin a
testimonial advertising campaign, letting your customers
speak for you.
Well...here's my embarrassing story. I spent money on a
marketing campaign in January, called a few of the
leads, and got busy with one client and did not follow
up on the leads. The quandary is: do I call them back
now, and if so, what do I say? "Gosh, I'm so stupid for
forgetting you existed, please forgive me, I'll lick
your boots if you'll talk to me!" Would it just be
better to start a new campaign to get fresh leads and
include them in the mix of calls? The egg on the face is
all mine and it's running. Cletus
You don’t have to lick anybody’s boots. But you do have
to stay in touch. The reason you didn’t connect with all
your prospects is because you were not prepared. You
found one and ignored the others. My weekly email
magazine Sales Caffeine stays in touch with every
customer, every week. It contains a value message and an
opportunity to connect with me. If you had created a
weekly email with one paragraph of value, you wouldn’t
be in this mess. As it stands right now, you’re actually
embarrassed to call people. Do not start another
campaign until you’ve created an ability to follow
through and communicate with everyone, either directly
or indirectly. Otherwise, all you’ll be doing is
doubling the amount of boots that you would potentially
have to kiss.
Jeffrey Gitomer is author of The Sales Bible, and The
Little Red Book of Selling. President of Charlotte-based
Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual sales
meetings, and conducts Internet training programs on
selling and customer service at
www.trainone.com. He can be reached at 704/333-1112
or e-mail
salesman@gitomer.com
© 2006 All Rights
Reserved - Don't even think about reproducing this
document without written permission from Jeffrey H.
Gitomer and Buy Gitomer • 704/333-1112
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